1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for registering a card where the card is used for administrative purposes. More particularly, registering a card that is used to enable configurations of an application and/or a device.
2. Description of the Related Art
One requirement currently associated with peripheral devices, e.g., multifunction machine, is that the peripheral device needs to provide a way for users to configure applications on the device, as well as the device itself. Typically, the ability to perform a configuration operation should not be available to all users of the peripheral device, but rather a limited set of users, e.g., network administrator.
One approach currently implemented to restrict access to a configuration operation is to only allow a one-time configuration operation of the application, such as during its initial setup. Since the configuration can only be changed/modified at one time, in order to perform another configuration operation, the corresponding configuration application must be uninstalled from the peripheral device and then reinstalled. This is extremely user unfriendly as it is a cumbersome and time consuming operation.
Another approach to restricting access to a configuration operation is to provide a password protected, special administrator mode, where an input of passwords are required to access configuration screen(s). The passwords are hard-coded into the configuration application. If the passwords are compromised, the entire configuration application is compromised, thus requiring installation of a new configuration application.
Still yet another approach to restricting access to a configuration operation is to provide a special access card that if presented to the peripheral device, e.g., swiping the card through a card reader connected to the peripheral device, provides a configuration screen. This approach is more secure than the previously described approaches since the person seeking access must be in possession of the special access card. However, special access cards need to be created for each peripheral device and the number of cards for a particular peripheral device is usually limited for security purposes.
All of the above described approaches are viable methods to restrict access to a configuration operation. However, what is needed is a more flexible solution that can overcome the shortcomings of the aforementioned solutions.